Beautiful Security: Leading Security Experts Explain How They Think [Paperback]

This collection of essays is a very clearly written introduction to a number of current topics and techniques in computer security. It is not a how-to book, but it includes several case studies and gives you a good idea of what is happening in the field. For the most part the book does not assume prior knowledge in the field, although occasionally a bit of hacker or security jargon is used without being defined.

For me the most interesting chapters were the one with case studies. In this book you will learn how to steal people's credit card numbers at airports (run a cut-rate WiFi access point), how to scan for malicious websites without getting infected (harder than it looks, and a constant battle of measures and countermeasures), and the true history of Pretty Good Privacy, as told by its inventor, Phil Zimmermann (not as lurid as the versions you have probably heard, but still full of twists and turns). You'll learn the going rates for stolen personal and financial information (not that much, so if you're going to steal it, you need to steal a lot) and how to run your own cyber money-laundering network (which seems to be where most of the money and the risk is). Microsoft plays a prominent role in the book, sometimes as hero, sometimes as chump.

The layout and production of the book are very good, and it has a good index (a glossary would have been nice, too). I have a couple of minor gripes: the book is set in itty-bitty type (I measured it at 8 points on 12 point line spacing); and although the book has two editors, the preface is written in the first person singular (apparently by Oram, but this is not stated).

The book's title, "Beautiful Security", was probably modeled on Oram's previous collection Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think (Theory in Practice (O'Reilly)), but it doesn't really fit the content of this book. Some of the essays mention beauty in the body or the title, but this is usually a token appearance, or is explained as meaning that security should be built in rather than tacked on. The preface states that the purpose of the book is to convince the reader that security is not bureaucratic drudgery but is an exciting career, and I think the book is successful at this.

Beautiful Security is full of pertinent information for all of us. The book is well written, covers topics we need to know about, is very readable. Start with the first entry by Mudge: his perspective is accurate and revealing and of course he writes well so enjoy the new insights you gain by reading this book. Highly recommended.

Recently I have been asked by a lot of people how do you get in the security field? I used to say a lot of hard work and a lot of luck. My new answer is going to be to read this book and see if you are interested in the field. The book covers a wide variety of subjects across all of information security that are really quite useful. Some of these areas you won't learn a lot if you are in that particular field, but even if you are in security I am sure you will learn a lot. I learned quite a bit on the sections on metrics and software security. This is a great book to have to be able to lend to people with an interest in entering the field.